To
understand the nature of elementals, one must understand the method
in which they enter our world. Planar studies tend to be very complicated,
and to keep a sense of brevity, we will not go into miniscule details.
Our world is surrounded by a dimensional veil, separating other
worlds that overlap our own, and each "veil" is continually
pushed and pulled back and forth as these Planes shift throughout
the ages. There are many planes and realms beyond our own, most
too hazardous to explore, but the ones we are well aware of, and
well-accustomed to, are the Prime Elemental Planes, each a whole
world unto their own. Four of them represent each Prime Element
- Earth, Air, Fire and Water. They are the purest embodiment of
each element, and a mage must be either extremely foolhardy or completely
in grasp of an element to walk the planes of the Prime Elements
and survive. While they might resemble our world in some ways, they
are decidedly alien and far more dangerous than one would first
imagine.

As these planes continually shift and grate against our own, at
times they can intersect one another, allowing the raw power of
one world to leak into another, and vice versa. This is how elementals
are formed; they are a manifestation of this power, and must sustain
themselves on the decidedly weaker source of our own world. Interestingly
enough, unlike most outerplanar beings, namely demons, elementals
have no intense hatred of life, nor do they regret the fact that
they have been shut off from their true world - they simply are
what they are, and accept it. It is theorized that places of intense
elemental forces (e.g., a particularly large, active volcano) attract
these intersections and sustain them, allowing a steady trickle
of the energy of a Prime Elemental Plane to leak through. Portals
to the Prime Elemental Planes can also be opened to allow a controlled
flow of energy to seep through for experimental purposes, however,
extreme measures must be taken to ensure that the portal is stabilized,
as disastrous results can occur when such a gateway "floods"
the area with elemental energy. It is thought that these places,
which we call an elemental nexus, attract, or possibly change creatures
of our own world. Wind witches, thunder trolls, frost giants, fire
sprites and krag dwellers are just a few examples of creatures that
are certainly attracted to such a focus of power, and it is theorized
that some of their development could have been aided by such a nexus,
though it has never been proven. Creatures like those listed above,
therefore, are not considered to be true elementals, rather they
are considered to have been born of the natural world and then have
been attuned to a certain element through a variety of ways.

Most elementals have the spark of sentience within them to a varying
degree partially dependant on their plane of origin. It is here
we note that not all elemental beings are formed on the Prime Elemental
Planes - Golems, in their many possible bases for construction,
are able to be crafted from the existing elemental power in our
own realm, but they do not occur naturally through the power of
an elemental nexus. Pure elementals must be summoned from the Prime
Elemental Planes themselves, and this is a very dangerous undertaking
unless one has a vast amount of skill in the processes involved.
Thus, all elementals described herein are those formed by the Prime
Elemental Planes in the wilderness of the world, they are considered
the standard by which to measure. Golems are touched upon briefly
in our writings only for the fact that they are commonly associated
with elementals - and one should remember not to confuse the two,
for they are vastly different in many aspects.

A side-effect of an elemental nexus, and admittedly a rare one,
is that when two are within close proximity to each other, their
powers can merge and create what is classified as a Composite Elemental,
that is, a mix of two elements. While powerful, they are lesser
in number than their purer counterparts - the Prime Elementals,
mainly due to the sheer rarity of two elemental nexuses located
so closely together.

The breakdown of elemental beings are through raw power, as this
is a standard in measuring a creature's threat.